The cannon fired with well over 10,000 people lining the banks of the canal and the race was on. I was there, on the line, with great feet to my left but when I hit the gas the body just bogged down and went nowhere. Was it that for the first time in my 20+ trans-Atlantic and Pacific flights I felt jet lag getting less than 3 hours of sleep each night for the 5 nights or was it my lack of fitness since I was essentially racing on less than 4 months of training. Impure thoughts danced in my head as I slowly pulled my shit together. A quarter mile into the swim I was nearly a minute down to the leader, which should be me.
I finally fully removed my head from my butt by the half mile mark and started to put together some sort of efficient stroke. I was passing people left and right, I was man on a mission. By the half way point in the swim I could see the collective splash of the lead group way ahead of me and I was swimming well, limiting any further losses. Every stroke you could see and hear the people cheering on either side of the canal. Just before I hit the second and final turnaround I saw the lead pack coming back and I start counting strokes to the turn. Damn, 2 minutes maybe more. Finally I finished the swim and you know it’s a bad thing when you are the only bag in a section of transition.
I jumped on my bike and my legs felt good, much better than the arms felt in the swim. After 10km (6 miles) I started to pick up the stragglers from the lead swim pack. By 30km (18 miles) I was in hot pursuit of the lead pack erasing the 2 minute deficit I surrendered in the swim. I quickly rode past a train of riders cruising nearly 5 mph faster. When I hit the front I threw in a few surges keeping the pace high between. Yet Nils Frommhold and Timo Bracht kept dragging the pack back up. I got a gap on the climb, and settled in…suddenly I see shadows 5 minutes later. I hit the decent full gas, got a gap…5 minutes later shadows again.
As we hit Hilpostein I was filling my AeroZ and fueling up and suddenly everybody started sprinting to the famed Solar Hill climb which had more than 50,000 spectators waiting. I hit the base of the climb in 5th place and got boxed in behind a slow climbing Timo Bracht. Nils and another German flew the coup and got a 30 second gap in a blink of the eye. I leaped away from the pack and set sail. I noticed that my power was dropping I looked at my heartrate which had dropped 10 beats. I adjusted my cadence and found a little power. It took me 20km but I was able to catch up to Nils who was now solo. My power numbers kept slipping and I started to show my lack of fitness over the last 50km of the 180km ride. Nils saw that I was suffering and set sail as I grabbed nutrition from an aid station.
Over the final hour all I did was play with my cadence trying to find power, the heart rate had plummeted seeing an occasional 130’s but mainly 140’s. I hit the 170km mark and I realized that even though I was not riding at the level I expected, I was riding record pace. I just kept working cadence and when I hit T2 I checked the clock and if I ran a 2:58 marathon I’ll be sub-8.
T2 was very routine and I set out on the run. My legs felt pretty good and turned over routinely.
Then about 5km my hip adductor tightened up and I came to a stop for just a few seconds to allow it to release. That was one of the biggest red flags my doctor had told me that would damage the FAI surgery that I had to have at the end of November. It loosened up and I ran well until 7 km where it really tightened up and I had to walk half a mile as I worked the hip stabilization muscles. I was losing heaps of time but I was still in 2nd place, walking but in 2nd. I resumed running and was cruising. Timo caught me at 13km and David Dellow got me at 18km. I was running well and went through the half marathon in just over 1:32 which was good considering the walks I had done to release the hip.
I was keeping the gap to Dellow consistent and we were actually closing at Timo…until 24km, then the adductor tightened up and it was bad. Normally I just buffer these cramps but fresh off surgery I needed to race conservatively so this was the start of a comeback and not a ticket back to the chopping block. I stopped and stretched, after a minute or so Per Bittner passed me, I tried to get the hip to release but the socket felt like it had vacuum sealed itself to the bone. I thought about it and made the hardest call. WALK.
Mentally I was a wreck in frustration, I walked the first km just trying not to limp. I saw the Swiss Miss, Caroline Stefan, and talked it over with her and got a hug along with some words of encouragement and I was on my way. I started walking 9 minute km, it was my new goal, good form and 9 min km. I started clipping them off. I got a few beers from the thousands of spectators lining the course and it made the walk go very quickly. Finally the finish stadium. Again thousands lining the chute and filling the stands. I walked across the line marking the start line of my comeback.
Challenge Roth was the most amazing experience when it comes to racing. There were more spectators than 5 Kona’s put together…that is the best way I can describe it.
Fighting to Win & Punish,